Oscars

Her Again is an intimate look at the artistic coming-of-age of the greatest actress of her generation, from the homecoming float at her suburban New Jersey high school, through her early days on the stage at Vassar College and the Yale School of Drama during its golden years, to her star-making roles in The Deer Hunter, Manhattan, and Kramer vs. Kramer.

New Yorker contributor Michael Schulman brings into focus Meryl’s heady rise to stardom on the New York stage; her passionate, tragically short-lived love affair with fellow actor John Cazale; her marriage to sculptor Don Gummer; and her evolution as a young woman of the 1970s wrestling with changing ideas of feminism, marriage, love, and sacrifice.

The 88th Academy Awards will air on ABC this coming Sunday night. Thelma Adams joins us to discuss the nominees. An established entertainment journalist and Oscarologist, she has penned criticism and celebrity features for the New York Post, Us Weekly and covered the Awards circuit for Yahoo! Movies.

She has twice chaired the New York Film Critics Circle, and also written for The New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Goldderby.com, The New York Observer, VanityFair.com, Parade, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Marie Claire, The Huffington Post, More, Interview Magazine, The New York Times, The international Herald Tribune, Cosmopolitan and Self.

Thelma Adams's second novel, The Last Woman Standing: A Novel of Mrs. Wyatt Earp will be publishing by Amazon's Lake Union imprint on July 1st.

The Hudson Valley will take center stage during the 88th Academy Awards February 28, a few dozen times. After its statuettes had been in the hands of a Chicago trophy company for the past 33 years, the Academy wanted to return to its 1929 roots, and chose Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry, in Rock Tavern, Orange County, to exclusively create them, starting with this year’s show. Stephanie Minor works at Polich Tallix and explains how it all came to pass.

Oscar nomination or no Oscar nomination, the vast majority of the high-profile performances-- both leading and supporting-- of the recently concluded year were given by actors who have won nominations and statuettes in previous years. This list includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Cate Blanchett, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Johnny Depp, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Shannon, Mark Ruffalo, Eddie Redmayne...and Jane Fonda...and Sylvester Stallone. However, in 2015, a host of non-Oscared performers deservedly earned kudos for their screen work. Some are celluloid novices, while others have been around for decades.

Nobody knows movies like Thelma Adams. So, we wanted to talk with her about this coming Sunday night’s Academy Awards and find out her thoughts on possible winners and losers on film’s biggest night.

She is an Oscarologist and has been the Yahoo! Movies Contributing Editor as well as the film critic at Us Weekly for eleven years, following six years at the New York Post. She has twice chaired the New York Film Critics Circle. Currently she’s the Film Editor at ZEALnyc.

A constant refrain that I’ve been hearing from movie lovers for years is: How come Hollywood does not produce more high-quality films-- films that are script and character-driven, and that are not overloaded with generally mindless content? This is a fair question. And it is one with a simple answer. That answer is a one-word answer. That one word is: money.

A recent Oscar winner has roots in the Berkshires. Pittsfield, Mass. native Caitrin Rogers co-produced 20 Feet From Stardom which received the Oscar for best documentary. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Jim Levulis spoke with Rogers about her experiences and the film which chronicles the lives of backup singers for some of music’s headliners.

Nobody knows movies like Thelma Adams. So, we wanted to talk with her about Sunday night’s Academy Awards and find out her thoughts on possible winners and losers on film’s biggest night.

She is currently a Yahoo! Movies Contributing Editor, film critic and Oscarologist. She was the film critic at Us Weekly for eleven years from 2000 to 2011, following six years at the New York Post. She has twice chaired the New York Film Critics Circle.

Hampshire College professor Chris Perry is in Los Angeles where he will be honored tomorrow at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual technical awards presentation. Perry, and three former colleagues, will receive a Technical Achievement Award for developing a software application for computer graphics animation. The technology has been used in more than 100 feature films including Life of Pi and Golden Compass – Oscar winners for Best Visual Effects. Perry spoke with WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill.

Nobody knows movies like Thelma Adams. So, we wanted to talk with her about last night Academy Awards and find out her thoughts on the winners and losers from film’s biggest night.

She is currently a Yahoo! Contributing Editor and her column “Thelma Adams on Reel Women” runs on AMC Filmcritic.com. She was the film critic at Us Weekly for eleven years from 2000 to 2011, following six years at the New York Post. She has twice chaired the New York Film Critics Circle.

She is also author of the terrific novel, Playdate, now out in paperback.

Its Oscar time and this year’s hopefuls include the youngest and oldest ever nominated for acting awards and four period pieces that could not be more different in the running for best picture.

The Oscars will be awarded this Sunday, and today we have film professors Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg in studio to share their picks and address your questions and comments on the nominees, nominees you think may have been overlooked, or even prospects for next year’s awards season.